The present invention relates to a cooling device, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus to be cooled by the cooling device, and particularly to a cooling device for cooling the whole inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
FIG. 23 shows a related art personal computer 1 including a main body 2 and a display unit 3. The main body 2 contains devices mounted on a board, such as a CPU and a video chip, which generate heat during operation thereof. To suppress the temperature rise of the whole main body 2, the main body 2 generally has an air outlet 4 disposed typically in the back surface of the main body 2, and also contains a cooling unit 11 shown in FIG. 24. Air in the main body 2, warmed by heat generated from the devices, is discharged to outside through the air outlet 4 by the cooling unit 11.
The cooling unit 11 shown in FIG. 24 has a housing 12 in which a fan 13 is contained. An air inlet 14 through which outside air is sucked by rotation of the fan 13 is provided in the upper surface of the housing 12, and an air outlet 15 through which the air having been sucked from the air inlet 14 is discharged is provided in one side surface of the housing 12.
FIGS. 25A and 25B are front and rear views of the cooling unit 11.
FIG. 26 is a sectional view taken on line X1-X2 of the personal computer 1 shown in FIG. 23. Referring to FIG. 26, the housing 12 of the cooling unit 11 is connected, via a thermal conductor 22 such as a heat pipe, to the board 21 on which the devices such as a CPU and a video chip are mounted. The cooling unit 11 is mounted in such a manner that the air outlet 15 is aligned to the air outlet 4 of the main body 2.
The first cooling function of the cooling unit 11 will be described below. Heat generated from the devices are transferred to the housing 12 of the cooling unit 11 via the board 21 and the thermal conductor 22, to warm air in the housing 12. Since the fan 13 of the cooling unit 11 is rotated to suck outside air from the air inlet 14 and discharge it from the air outlet 15, the warmed air in the housing 12 is discharged to outside via the air outlet 15 of the cooling unit 11 and the air outlet 4 of the main body 2. In this way, the devices as a heat source or the board 21 on which the devices are mounted are cooled by discharging the air in the housing 12, which has been warmed by heat having been transferred via the board 21 and the thermal conductor 22.
The second function of the cooling unit 11 will be described below. The heat from the devices or the board 21 also warms air in a space F, to increase the temperature of the air in the space F. The warmed air in the space F is sucked in the cooling unit 11 from the air inlet 14 and is discharged from the cooling unit 11 to outside via the air outlets 15 and 4 by rotation of the fan 13 of the cooling unit 11. In this way, the space F is cooled by discharging the warmed air in the space F. If a gap between the air inlet 14 of the cooling unit 11 and the inner wall of the main body 2 is broadened, a space G is similarly cooled in accordance with the second cooling function.
The temperature rise of the whole main body 2 is suppressed by cooling respective portions in the main body 2 as described above.
However, along with the miniaturization of the personal computer 1, the main body 2 has come to be thinned, and more concretely the height of the main body 2 has come to be lowered. Accordingly, a gap between the air inlet 14 of the cooling unit 11 and the inner wall of the main body 2 has come to be made narrow. This presents a problem that the air resistance of the gap or the air flow path becomes high and thereby air does not smoothly flow in the gap, with a result that the sucking of air in the cooling unit 11 from the air inlet 14 is insufficient, so that the temperature rise of the main body 2 cannot be sufficiently suppressed.
To allow air in the main body 2 to be sucked in the cooling unit 11 from the air inlet 14 via the air flow path having a high air resistance, it is required to make large the size of the cooling unit 11. As a result, there arises another problem that it is difficult to miniaturize the main body 2.
According to the related art cooling unit 11, air in the space G opposite to the air inlet 24, which is warmed by the heat generated from the devices, is less sucked in the cooling unit 11 from the air inlet 24, and therefore, the warmed air in the space G cannot be sufficiently discharged to outside. As a result, there occurs a further problem that it is difficult to sufficiently suppress the temperature rise of the whole main body 2.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device capable of easily discharging air in a main body of an electronic apparatus of even a miniature type in which a gap between an air inlet of the cooling device and the inner wall of the main body is narrow, a cooling method therefor, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a cooling device capable of discharging air even in a space, opposite to an air inlet of the cooling device, in a main body of an electronic apparatus, a cooling method therefore, and an electronic apparatus having a main body to be cooled by the cooling device.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is provided a cooling device for cooling the inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus including said main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said cooling device including: means for transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and means for driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted by said transmission means, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is also provided a cooling method for cooling the inside of a main body of an electronic apparatus including said main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said method including the steps of: transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted at said transmission step, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
To achieve the above first object, according to the present invention, there is also provided an electronic apparatus including a main body having a movable bottom surface portion and a display unit openable/closable relative to said main body, said electronic apparatus including: means for transmitting an opening/closing angle of said display unit; and means for driving said movable bottom surface portion in accordance with said opening/closing angle of said display unit transmitted by said transmission means, to enlarge the inner space of said main body, thereby cooling the inside of said main body.
With the configurations of the above cooling device and the cooling method, since the movable bottom surface portion is driven in accordance with the transmitted opening/closing angle of the display unit to enlarge the inner space of the main body, it is possible to sufficiently cool the inside of the main body.
With the configuration of the above electron apparatus, since the movable bottom surface portion is driven in accordance with the transmitted opening/closing angle of the display unit, to enlarge the inner space of the main body, thereby cooling the inside of the main body, it is possible to effectively utilize the inner space of the main body.
To achieve the above second object, according to the present invention, there is provided a cooling device including: means for sucking a first gas; means for discharging said first gas sucked by said sucking means; and means for sucking and discharging a second gas by the action of said first gas discharged by said discharging means.
To achieve the above second object, according to the present invention, there is also provided a cooling method including the steps of: sucking a first gas; discharging said first gas sucked at said sucking step; and sucking and discharging a second gas by the action of said first gas discharged at said discharging step.
To achieve the above second object, according to the present invention, there is also provided an electronic apparatus including: means for sucking a first gas; means for discharging said first gas sucked by said sucking means; and means for sucking and discharging a second gas by the action of said first gas discharged by said discharging means.
With the configurations of the above cooling device and the cooling method, since a first gas is sucked and discharged, and a second gas is sucked by the action of the discharged first gas, it is possible to cool the entire space around the cooling device.
With the configuration of the above electronic apparatus, since a first gas is sucked by the sucking means and is discharged by the discharging means, and a second gas is sucked by the sucking and discharging means which makes use of the action of the discharged first gas, it is possible to cool the whole inside of the electronic apparatus.